"A Great game for Ultrafans, others may want to stay away though"

I've forever been a fan of Ultraman, since watching reruns on cable TV when I five. I was just bumming around Naha (a city in Okinawa) when I came across Ultraman for the PS2. I decided that I had to have it and I would also need a Japanese PS2. So after a month and a half of saving money I went to Toys R Us with the equivalent of $250 to buy the system and game, but the system was far more expensive then I thought it would be, as was the game! Well I bought the system anyway with the intention of picking th game up after I was paid again, and upon looking for a game to buy, I found Ultraman Fighting Evolution 2, a cheaper game by far and still it was Ultraman, so I snatched it up and boy am I glad I did!

Game play: 9/10 The controls are easy enough in UFE2 . The square button does rapid attacks that vary on how you press the control pad, X does grabs and throw, and triangle does a powerful knockdown move that is used to prepare for energy attacks. Energy attacks are used after a strong knock down. You know that you can use one when you see the energy gage bar pop up on the bottom of the screen underneath your character. Pressing L1 and R1 together then activates them. Hold the buttons to power up to stronger attacks. Energy attacks have to be used to defeat opponents. As with true Ultraman fashion, you are given 3 minutes to complete each battle, this is done both when playing as one of the Ultrabrothers or one of the monsters.

There are 6 Ultramen to choose from and 1 to be unlocked later on, and there are 6 monsters with one to unlock. There are also four different game modes. Battle mode, a basic arcade style game, Ultra Mode, a story mode with three different games, Gomora's Rampage, King Joe's Plan, and the main story game, Invasion. There is also a practice mode and a replay mode that allows you to view previous battles and save them to watch again.

Story: 8/10 Fighting games are not know for their plots, but as an Ultraman game, they did a good job here, though it doesn't go along with any real Ultraman story. The story is this: centuries ago the Ultramen were locked in combat with the strongest monsters around. Eventually the Ultramen won, but they were unable to destroy the monsters, so they took them far away from Nebula M78 to an uninhabited planet. Centuries passed and the planet began to grow and evolve and was soon inhabited, the people of the planet named it Earth. Eventually the people of the Earth would pollute the planet so bad it would cause the hibernating monsters to awaken, and that is were the game begins. Knowing what was about to happen the Ultramen came to Earth to defend the people from the monsters.

Graphics/Sound: 8/10 The graphics are pretty good, though the PS2 is capable of so mush more, still, you can't complain too much. The Ultramen and their enemies are in top form , and the arenas are great too. You can knock your opponents through power lines and buildings, something that more games need to have. The music is taken directly from the TV show, each character has their own theme music, it all depends on who the player at the right hand side is.

Replay: 5/10 This is where the game fails, with only 2 unlock able characters, there really isn't much replay value here. I paid 3600 yen, about $34 for this game, and to be honest that was a bit steep. I only wanted the game to kill about two weeks worth of time, and that it did, but that was stretching it. For and Ultrafan like myself, the replay is there, but for fans of fighting games, it's lacking very big.

Buy or Rent: This all depends on how much you like Ultraman, for someone like myself, this is a must have, but non-Ultrafans may want to just rent this one, as the replay is so low. As an Ultraman game, this one shines like Ultraman's Color Timer, but as a fighting game, it may be lost to the darkness.